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Tuesday, April 30, 2002

It will be nice if Pirates General Manager Dave Littlefield can trade some of his excess pitching this week to make room for Josias Manzanillo and Kris Benson.

It will be better if Littlefield can get a center fielder who hits leadoff in return.

Adrian Brown isn't getting the job done. He's Plan A. Chad Hermansen is Plan B. There's no reason to think he will get it done, either.

Brown isn't the only reason the Pirates have scored the fewest runs in the National League. Their big-money guys -- Jason Kendall and Kevin Young -- deserve much more blame. It's almost unbelievable that the club is off to a 14-9 start with Kendall batting .231 with five RBIs and Young hitting .197, including 1 for 21 with runners in scoring position.

	Pirates center fielder Adrian Brown is off to a slow start this season. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette)

But Kendall is showing signs of coming around. He had three hits and an RBI in the Pirates' 3-2 win against the San Diego Padres Sunday in the first game of a doubleheader. He's batting .429 with all of his RBIs in his past six games. He's a proven big-league hitter. He batted at least .320 in each of the three seasons before last season, when a thumb injury contributed to his .266 average.

Young also has a track record, although his drop-off in production each year from his best season -- he hit .298 with 26 home runs and 106 RBIs in 1999 -- has been alarming. At least he's playing first base as well as anyone in the league, a significant factor in the Pirates' improved pitching and fast start. He came off the bench Thursday as a late-inning defensive replacement against the Los Angeles Dodgers and saved a 3-2 win with a fine play on a shot down the line.

It's not like the Pirates have many options with Kendall and Young, anyway. They can't trade them because of their ridiculous contracts. They can't afford to sit them on the bench much, either. They have to keep playing them and hope they hit more -- a lot more.

Brown's situation is different. He's replaceable. He isn't just struggling at the plate. He isn't helping defensively or on the bases.

The Pirates were fortunate to win that game against the Dodgers Thursday after Brown misplayed one ball for a three-base error and failed to catch another that was ruled a double. Then in the Friday night game against the Padres, he foolishly tried to advance from second base in the first inning on a ball hit to the shortstop. Those are inexcusable mistakes for a guy who is hitting .220 with a .312 on-base percentage.

The Pirates' worst fears about Brown are being realized. They had hoped his .172 average in 25 spring-training games was the result of rust from a shoulder injury that forced him to miss almost all of last season, but he hasn't been much better in April. He's been so bad offensively Manager Lloyd McClendon dropped him from first to second in the batting order before the weekend series against the Padres "just to get him a little different look, to hopefully get him going."

McClendon tried to sound enthused after Brown walked twice, singled and scored the winning run in the victory in Sunday's first game.

"Maybe this will be the start of something for him. I like to think he's finally starting to feel more comfortable at the plate. We certainly need him. We're a better team when he's on base. He can make things happen for us."

At this point, McClendon has no choice but to be patient with Brown. It's pretty obvious he doesn't think Hermansen is the Pirates' answer in center field. If he did, Hermansen would be in the starting lineup against the Colorado Rockies tonight instead of beginning his second week of an injury rehabilitation assignment with Class AAA Nashville.

It's hard to blame McClendon if he doesn't have faith in Hermansen. Yes, Hermansen hit .382 with three home runs in 18 spring-training games and would have made the opening day roster if not for a strained buttock muscle. But how do you believe in him as an every-day player? He spent parts of each of the past three seasons with the Pirates and hit .193. He hit only .246 at Nashville last season and struck out 154 times in 123 games. He had two hits and six strikeouts in 15 at-bats in the first five games of his rehabilitation assignment.

That doesn't mean Hermansen won't get his shot in center field. Brown's poor play could force that.

It just means Littlefield has to give McClendon a better alternative. It's time to start thinking about a Plan C.

Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.